6. Camera / Switcher / production / audio Production gear fails Have 2 of everything I would rather have 2 cheap video switchers rather than a single expensive one Production teams fail Guys pulling out audio cables while we press the go live button Wrong/faulty cable used - audio out of phase (garbled audio on mono)

7. Camera / Switcher / production / audio Production gear fails Have 2 of everything I would rather have 2 cheap video switchers rather than a single expensive one Production teams fail Guys pulling out audio cables while we press the go live button Wrong/faulty cable used - audio out of phase (garbled audio on mono)

8. Contribution / Uplink (+ on site connectivity) Use reliable contribution encoders Software solutions are ne but wont work for something you care about For the love of god, dont use a phone Use diverse signal paths Fiber + sat + onsite internet + bonded cellular solution etc Never trust the venue internet

9. Ingest and Transcoder (Origin) Stream to Primary and Backup ingest as a minimum Stream to both simultaneously over redundant and diverse network paths Input streams ideally are key frame / time code aligned so transcoded output is identical on both primary and backup Transcode and packetize to HLS / Dash for maximum compatibility Don't forget low bitrate / audio only streams for low bandwidth consumers Name segments & set sane cache headers on your playlist and segments to prevent stale content

10. CDN (Edge) Using a single CDN is a recipe for failure. If this hasn't blown up in your face yet, it will Go with a Multi-CDN strategy. If this is too hard to manage yourself (integration, legal, pricing) use a one stop shop Multi-CDN provider Where is your audience? What peaks do you expect in what regions? Ask your CDN provider what their edge capacity / max concurrents. Let them know in advance if you expect big spikes Consider an intermediary caching layer or origin shield so the CDN(s) don't overwhelm your origin

12. Player / Player Engines / embed Both HLS and DASH have protocol level support for multiple sources representing the same content, however not all playback engines honour it. Load balancing and failover is often best implemented at the player level. Smart Players can select best performing source before playback starts Player can failover on client side - often preferable / more responsive than DNS Using a hosted player vendor - ask what their CDN & DNS arch is. Failover/redundant?

14. Best practice for Facebook Live Use pro equipment and workows if you care about quality (no phones!) Be on the money with your stream starts/stops so archive/VoD looks good Leverage the stream preview function to check quality before going live Send in best possible contribution - 720p 4000Kbit/s 2 second keyframe If you stop pushing to ingest (e.g. your primary encoder is down) you have < 3 minutes to resume streaming before your stream ends (manual failover) Cleanly end your streams so viewers arent left hanging (see above).